This invention relates generally to sealing apparatus and more particularly to sealing apparatus for surrounding a portion of a cable extending through and above an opening formed in a raised floor for supporting computer equipment and for providing a seal between the environment beneath the floor and the environment above the floor surrounding the computer equipment and further for providing a flame spread barrier between the environments.
As is known to those skilled in the computer equipment art, and more particularly the computer equipment environment art, most computer equipment is supported on a raised floor provided a predetermined distance above the base floor wherein the space between the raised and base floors can be used to run the cables connected to and interconnecting the various computer equipment and can be used as an air supply plenum. As is further known to those skilled in this art, the cables extend through openings formed in the floor and such cables in many instances can come into a state of disarray and entanglement providing a safety hazard making it desirable to compact the cables into a neat bundle thereby eliminating the safety hazard. In addition, as is further known, the environment above the raised floor surrounding the computer equipment can be filled with paper dust, other dust or dust particles, and other combustible matter which can provide a combustion hazard and upon such material passing from above through the openings formed in the raised floor through which the cables extend, such material can enter the environment beneath the raised floor providing a combustion hazard there and causing the inadvertent alarm of smoke detection typically present under the raised floor such as ionization and photoelectric smoke detection; accordingly, it is desirable to seal the environments above and below the raised floor from each other thereby eliminating the spread of flame between the two environments in the event of a fire in one of the environments.